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"I came to the mechanical trades after studying music at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. In Boston, I took a diploma in piano technology under Bill Garlick and earned guild qualification as a tuning examiner. Since 1985 I have built 100+ fortepianos after Walter, Hofmann and Graf. My list of clients includes many fine players and institutions.

After some years in Amsterdam, I came to the Czech Republic in 1995. I found that various woods grown in the Czech Republic resembled those seen in old Viennese pianos.In fact it was written in 1823 that Conrad Graf preferred to get his soundboards from the Schwarzenberg Forest in Southern Bohemia, and indeed there is still the narrow Schwarzenberg Canal leading from the headwaters of the Moldau all the way to the Danube. A man who selects wood for violin makers chooses my logs from this forest.

My workshop is well equipped. In my own work I follow the information I have collected during museum research and restoration, most particularly preserving the measurements of soundboard and hammer mechanism. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)